De-caf, non-fat Tequila
Eric Kozlik of Modern Bar Cart shared with me an email exchange he’d had with a PR agency, where their selling point for a new Bourbon was that it was made using a "proprietary heirloom corn.” That made me think about Tequilas that are labeled “gluten-free.” Which made Eric think of “non-GMO.” Which made me think about the difference between “still strength” and “cask-strength,” and between casks and barrels. Which led to both of us deciding to stop thinking and start recording — which is usually how we make each episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Eric Kozlik of Modern Bar Cart.
Mezcal is smoky Tequila
Mezcal geeks and agave nerds get hot under the collar when someone suggests that Mezcal is smoky Tequila. But … isn’t it? It’s a fire-starter episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Linda Sullivan of seynasecreto
Uncertified Mezcal can kill you
It’s true: An uncertified agave spirit can kill you. But so can a certified Mezcal. Or a certified Tequila. So … what exactly is the point of certification? I had this … conversation? debate? battle? … with Sergio Garnier of Mezcal Ultramundo in another episode in March of this year. He felt like he had more to say and I feel like I could talk about this issue all day long. So here’s your sequel! (And, yes, the title is designed both to anger everyone who correctly indicate that there is no such thing as uncertified Mezcal as well as to increase search optimization.) It’s a leave-the-gun, take-the-cannoli episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Sergio Garnier of Mezcal Ultramundo.
Mezcal flights or Mezcal cocktails?
No question but that most people in the USA are introduced to Mezcal through cocktails. But most bartenders I know — most people I know, in fact — prefer drinking Mezcal neat. Drinking spirits neat, however, can be intimidating to that cocktail drinker. So what’s the gateway? We talk Mezcal flights in this 30,000-foot episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Shad Kvetko of Dallas’ beloved Las Almas Rotas! (And Dave Tyda of Phoenix’s beloved Bar Coa jumps in with another great suggestion!)
Tequila Cristalino: Threat or Menace?
You can’t log onto a Facebook Tequila group without seeing Cristalino Tequila derided, abused, and generally treated as some kind of punch line. But … do those user groups reflect the average consumer? Does the average consumer matter as much as the more highly engaged consumers that populate these online groups? And does consumption itself matter as much as cultural heritage? And why do I like the average Tequila Cristalino more than I like the average Tequila? That’s what I discuss with my past self on this time-travel episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Lou Bank from the Past and filled with interview clips from Jaime Salas of Proximo and Jose Cuervo Tequila; Juan Eduardo Nuñez of Tequila El Viejito; Tequila-geek royalty Khrys Maxwell; dean of American whiskey journalism, Chuck Cowdery, and Barbara Engelskirchen from the National Museum of Mexican Art.
The Beverage Testing Institute does not say that mezcal is the purest distilled alcohol
“According to the Beverage Testing Institute of Chicago in Illinois, mezcal is the purest distillate or alcohol that exists on the planet and the noblest with the human body.” Or, at least, that’s the oft-repeated quote that comes up every several months and drives the folks at the Beverage Testing Institute crazy. So I’ve invited Andrew Moldenhauer, their Director, on to clear up the confusion.
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Andrew Moldenhauer of the Beverage Testing Institute.
Horse piss, arm pits, and other Mezcal additives
I like to talk about the 400 decisions that a mezcalerx makes that determines how an agave spirit tastes. But there are other elements beyond their decisions … natural elements that find their way into the process … that also have an impact on what goes into the bottle. We’re taking shots in this episode of Agave Road Trip!
When did Tequila stop being fun?
It’s all in the eye of the beholder, I know. But when I think about what Tequila was back in the ‘80s and ‘90s … it was a catalyst for fun. I had a coworker who thought “tequila” was Spanish for “dancing on tables.” And I still see that, though mainly in Mexico. Here in the USA, it’s become so serious. Or maybe I just don’t go to the right places or hang out with the right people. But I’m left wondering … when did Tequila stop being fun? When did they add Tequila Académico to the Norma? We’re taking shots in this episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Linda Sullivan of seynasecreto
Yes, there can be additives in Mezcal
In the past several weeks, I have seen in numerous online forums the misstatement that Mezcal can’t have additives. And the misstatement that those additives can only be fresh fruits and raw turkey. So this episode is 100% just so I can post a simple link the next time I see that error pop up again. And it’s an opportunity to clarify the allowance of additives in all Mexican spirits. And it’s an opportunity to speak again with Alberto Esteban Marina, who was the Director General for all Normas in Mexico from 2013 to 2019, during which time he literally wrote some of those regulations. It’s a from-the-horse’s-mouth episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Linda Sullivan of seynasecreto
A $30 chicken dinner is a bargain
John Douglass of the multi-award-winning Louisville bar Pretty Decent is renowned for his hospitality. But he got a bit hot under the collar when one of his favorite customers complained about a $30 chicken dinner at a fancy spot around the corner. We break that chicken down — and your free chips-and-salsa, too — in this under-priced episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest John Douglass of Pretty Decent, a mezcal-focused cocktail bar and a boutique plant shop in Louisville, Kentucky.
You can’t recycle that bottle
Road-tripper Nathan Mealey checked in to ask, “How do you if a brand is ethical?” So I’ve started having that conversation with a number of people, coming at the question from different angles. This first answer considers packaging — specifically glass bottles. We think of those glasses as recyclable. But … are they? It’s a myth-busting episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest William Bahan of W. Bahan, a Los Angeles-based firm that provides branding, identity, and package designs for select clientele.
Making beer with agave (and sotol)
How do you turn 24,000 acres of wild maguey Lamparillo and dasylirion into beer? You bring Mike Schallau of is/was brewing to Durango to hang out with Sergio Garnier of Mezcal Ultramundo! Mike has been making beer since 2018 with agave I’ve brought him from Mexico, to fundraise for SACRED. This year, he made the trip himself. The beer is in the works and should be ready for your glass this summer! But this episode of Agave Road Trip is ready to be consumed now!
Cocktails as cultural bridges
I’ve heard a lot about how bartenders use cocktails as a way to introduce their guests to Mexican spirits like Mezcal, Tequila, Raicilla, Bacanora, and Sotol. And lately, I’ve also heard a little about using those same cocktails to introduce guests to the communities those spirits come from – turning the cocktail into a gateway to another culture. So I spoke with some bartenders about exactly that. Alex Dominguez checks in from Calico in New York, Matthias Ingelmann from KOL in London, Mariane Garcia from Copitas Cholula, and … Aithan Shapira from MIT Sloan School of Management. It’s a globe-spanning episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Linda Sullivan of seynasecreto
What is the connection between Mezcal, Mexican food, and museums?
The first time I saw tascalate on a menu it was at Itanoni in Oaxaca. I immediately fell in love with the traditional drink. But finding a second cup – particularly at home in Chicago – was a lost cause. But now, years later, Ximena N. Beltran Quan Kiu has written an article about how tascalte has made its way onto bar menus. And that’s a reflection of a broader trend. It’s an everything-old-is-celebrated-again episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Ximena N. Beltran Quan Kiu.
Maybe that 12-year-old agave is only five years old…
I was having a conversation with Grace Gonzalez of Tequila El Mayor and she said something that brought into focus a thought that’s been bumping around in my head: We talk a lot about the ages of the agaves that are used to make Mezcal and Tequila. But there’s really no mechanism to verify that. And, in fact, since different agaves reach maturity at different points – even when they are the same species growing in the same territory – a statement like “we only harvest eight-year-old agave” simply can’t be accurate. So how should we be talking about the age of agave? It’s an episode for the ages on Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Linda Sullivan of seynasecreto, with supporting insights from Grace Gonzalez of Tequila El Mayor.
Mezcal Moto-Rally!
Four wheels good! Two wheels more good? For the last few years, Nick Barreiro has organized a moto-rally for small group of motorcycle-and-Mexico enthusiasts. And while motorcycles aren’t my speed, I know they work for plenty of gringx bartenders, and I love this whole different way to take in the stories of rural Mexico. Learn about Nick’s international motor rally in this bitchin’ hog of an episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Nick Barreiro of Mezcal Moto Rally.
What can cultivated meat teach us about Mezcal?
In his New York Times op-ed about the imploding dream of cultivated meat, Joe Fassler writes, “[It] was an embodiment of the wish that we can change everything without changing anything. We wouldn’t need to rethink our relationship to Big Macs and bacon. We could go on believing that the world would always be the way we’ve known it.” And while I can’t see a direct corollary to Mezcal and Tequila, the way the word “sustainable” is thrown around over an afternoon of neat pours, it suggests to me that we think we’re saving the world one copita at a time. So … are we? It’s a plant-to-the-slaughter episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Evelyn Cotton Botello of Mezcal Amaras.
Are the Best Bottles of the Year the best bets for your bar?
Vinepair, Wine Enthusiast, Esquire … seems like every publication these days has their suggestions for what you should have been drinking over the past year. Maybe what you should be purchasing as holiday gifts. But these lists can also serve as sales tools for gringx bartenders! It’s a DIY episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Linda Sullivan of seynasecreto.
This bottle protects jaguars or How Tequila can protect biodiversity
We’ve done a lot of episodes about the importance of biodiversity, but usually we’re talking about plants. Sometimes insects. Bats, on occasion. So when we got an email from the gang at Alma de Jaguar Tequila about preserving this apex predator, I thought, yeah, let’s really sink our teeth into this subject! It’s a wild cat episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with special guest Sergio Garnier of Mezcal Ultramundo.
Are agave straws really better than plastic?
A trend that’s emerged in the past decade are these drinking straws that are being promoted as made from agave fibers — the agave fibers being a byproduct of the process for making Tequila and Mezcal. The straws are marketed as biodegradable. But I think — emphasis on “think” — that these straws are at least in part made from plastics and are not actually entirely biodegradable. At least not in the way that they are presented. So I invited Natasha Tucker, the executive director of Mind Your Plastic, to have that conversation. Are agave straws really better for the earth than plastic straws? At the risk of giving away the answer, it’s another heartbreaking episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. This episode is hosted by Lou Bank with guest cohost Natasha Tucker of Mind Your Plastic.